Probe into RAF helicopter crash

An investigation was under way today after an RAF Puma helicopter crashed in Kosovo, close to the Macedonian border, killing both pilots.

The helicopter, with seven people on board came down yesterday in bad weather while apparently trying to make an emergency landing in the mountains around the town of Kranacia.

The Ministry of Defence said that there was "absolutely no evidence" to suggest that it had been brought down as a result of hostile action.

The two pilots were named last night by the MoD as Captain Andrew Crous, 28, of the Army Air Corps, and RAF Flight Lieutenant James Maguire, 31. Both were based at RAF Benson.

The five survivors - four soldiers from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment and an RAF loadmaster - were being treated at an American field hospital at Camp Bondsteel. Their injuries were not said to be life threatening.

Following the crash a US immediate response team, with two Blackhawk helicopters with full trauma handling equipment, was despatched to the site, where the regimental doctor of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment was also in attendance.

All were part of Task Force Cambrai which is carrying out interdiction operations against ethnic Albanian insurgents fighting against the Macedonian government.

Since some 300 British troops were deployed to the border zone last month they have been involved in intercepting a number of attempts by the insurgents to smuggle arms and supplies across the border.

Both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats tonight called for a full investigation into the cause of the crash.

Shadow defence secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: "We urge the Minister and the MoD to get to the bottom of this and publish their findings of why this tragedy happened."